HIBAPRESS – Mohammed Zerrih
Complaints continue to pour in from citizens in the city of Nador and its surrounding areas regarding the exorbitant increase in visa appointment booking costs, particularly for Schengen visas. Many have confirmed that obtaining an appointment through official platforms has become nearly impossible, while it is offered on the black market for astronomical sums reaching 4,000 dirhams per appointment. This is a clear exploitation of citizens' need to travel for work, study, or medical treatment.
Affected individuals stated that the booking process, which is supposed to be free or involve a nominal fee, has turned into a lucrative trade run by intermediaries and brokers who use automated booking programs. They reserve all available appointments within seconds and resell them to citizens at inflated prices. This deprives ordinary citizens of their right to obtain an appointment legally and transparently, leaving them with two options: pay the exorbitant price or wait for many months.
The suffering of visa applicants does not stop at the cost of the appointment; it extends to the expenses of the visa file itself, which exceed 1,000 dirhams per person. This includes the fees of the TLS contact center, translation services, mandatory insurance, and other required documents. These expenses burden families, especially when dealing with collective applications for members of the same family.
What further exacerbates the resentment and anger among citizens is that these amounts are non-refundable in case of visa rejection. The visa fees, estimated at over 1,000 dirhams, are not returned, even though rejections have become noticeably frequent lately without clear and convincing justifications. This results in citizens losing thousands of dirhams without even being able to travel.
In this regard, several citizens in Nador expressed their deep dissatisfaction with this situation in separate statements, considering what is happening to be legalized extortion and a trade in their dreams. They are calling on the responsible authorities and the concerned consulates to intervene urgently to put an end to the activities of the brokers and to provide a fair and transparent booking mechanism that protects citizens' dignity and curbs the actions of speculators.
Given this worsening situation, local actors and human rights activists in Nador are demanding an investigation into visa appointment brokerage networks and intensified monitoring of online platforms. They also call for obliging visa application processing centers to clarify the reasons for rejection and to reconsider the policy of not refunding fees, in order to guarantee the principle of transparency and protect the rights of Moroccan citizens.
